Intro.
#Seven Document Types: Same Company, Completely Different Materials
A single company needs at least six or seven distinct 'about us' documents. Each has a different audience, and each audience wants to see something different. If you turn your business plan into a single PDF and carry it to every meeting, it won't work anywhere.
| Document | Audience | Length | The Core Question It Must Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company brochure | General customers, partners | 5-10 pages | What does your company sell? |
| HR recruiting deck | Job applicants | 10-15 pages | Why should I work here? |
| Government grant application | Reviewers, evaluating agencies | 20-50 pages (fixed template) | Why does this business serve the program's policy goals? |
| 5-minute demo day pitch | A large audience, press | 10-12 slides | What's compelling within the first minute? |
| Cold email attachment (executive summary) | Investors (initial screening) | 3-5 page PDF | Is this worth a follow-up meeting? |
| First-meeting pitch deck | 1-2 deal-team investors | ~15 slides, excluding appendix | Core business model + team + funding amount and timing |
| Investment-committee deck | Multiple other partners and associates | 30+ slides, excluding appendix | Why should our fund deploy capital into this company? |
TIP
A business plan is a document that organizes the business itself. A pitch deck is material built to secure an investment decision. Their purposes are different — a well-organized business plan doesn't automatically produce a finished pitch deck.
02
#Seven Critical Differences, Summarized
Here are the seven critical differences that separate a business plan, government application, or company brochure from a pitch deck. If even one of these seven still carries a business-plan tone, an investor will conclude: 'this person isn't ready to raise money.'
| Axis | Business Plan / Government Application | Pitch Deck |
|---|---|---|
| ① Audience | Reviewers, evaluating agencies | Investors (deal lead + other partners) |
| ② Length | 20-50 pages (fixed template) | 15 slides for a first meeting / 30+ for an investment committee |
| ③ Order | Fixed template order (company -> business -> market -> financials) | Company Purpose -> Problem -> Solution -> Why Now -> Market -> Competition -> Business Model -> Team -> Financial -> Vision |
| ④ Tone | Policy language (policy alignment, job creation, exports) | Investor language (TAM/SAM/SOM, MoM growth, CAC, LTV, Unfair Advantage) |
| ⑤ Depth of numbers | Total project cost, grant amount, matching-fund ratio | Burn rate, 3-year financials, funding ask, unit economics |
| ⑥ Team slide placement | Appendix at the very back, or abbreviated | In the main body, right after business model and market (slide H) |
| ⑦ Final page | "Thank you" + project timeline | The ask (amount needed, use of funds, milestones, vision) |
주의
Items ⑥ and ⑦ are the ones most likely to still carry a business-plan tone. Burying the team in an appendix is like serving a bun with no filling, and ending on a page that just says 'thank you' leaves the investor's real question — 'so how much do you actually need?' — unanswered.
03
#The Pitch Deck's 10-Section Structure: How It Differs from a Business Plan's Table of Contents
Here are the 10 sections that Korean seed-to-Pre-A VCs treat as the standard pitch deck structure. The critical difference from a government application's 'company status -> business overview -> market analysis -> implementation plan -> financial plan' order is that a pitch deck gives 'Why Now' and 'Vision' their own dedicated slides.
| # | Section | One-Line Definition |
|---|---|---|
| A | Company Purpose | Why the company exists — one declarative sentence |
| B | Problem | The customer's current pain point (persona, value chain) |
| C | Solution | The core value delivered to customers + a concrete use case |
| D | Why Now | Why this market is forming in earnest right now |
| E | Market Potential | TAM / SAM / SOM calculation |
| F | Competition | Direct and indirect competitors + your unfair advantage |
| G | Business Model | Revenue model + core metrics by category (MAU, MRR, CAC, LTV) |
| H | Team | Co-founders and key members (name + background/experience + equity) |
| I | Financial | 3-year revenue plan + burn rate + funding ask |
| J | Vision | What you will have achieved 5 years from now |
TIP
Of these 10 sections, D (Why Now) and J (Vision) are slides that almost never appear in a government application. Since government programs hinge on policy fit, they never ask you to justify your timing or articulate a long-term vision. In a pitch deck, both are mandatory.
04
#What + How-To: How the Same Company's Story Diverges Between a Business Plan and a Pitch Deck
Let's imagine a hypothetical fashion D2C company that describes itself as 'running vertical e-commerce.' Here's a side-by-side look at how its market slide diverges between a government application and a pitch deck.
| Axis | Government Application Tone | Pitch Deck Tone |
|---|---|---|
| Market size | "The domestic e-commerce market is ₩200T and growing every year" | TAM ₩200T (all e-commerce) / SAM ₩12T (fashion vertical) / SOM ₩120B (women in their 20s-30s, D2C, bottom-up) |
| Problem | "Inefficiency in existing distribution and declining consumer satisfaction" | Two personas of women in their 20s-30s, 28% average return rate, size-dissatisfaction NPS of -12 |
| Solution | "Building an AI-powered personalized recommendation platform" | Body-shape diagnosis -> guaranteed-fit exchange within 1 week, 42% repeat purchase rate, ₩112K average order value |
| Competition | "Offering a differentiated service versus leading players A and B" | A matrix of 3 direct and 2 indirect competitors + a one-line differentiator (body-shape diagnosis + fit exchange) |
| Financials | Total project cost ₩500M, grant ₩400M, matching funds ₩100M | Burn rate ₩42M/month / 12-month runway / seeking ₩800M seed round / 80% of funds to growth marketing and CAC validation |
Where a government application focuses on 'what we will do' (the What), a pitch deck has to answer the What plus 'how, and through what stages' (the How-To) on the same slide. If 'targeting the vertical e-commerce market' is the What, then 'Phase 1: women in their 20s-30s, Phase 2: men in their 30s-40s, Phase 3: expansion into Japan' is the How-To.
주의
If you're targeting a vertical commerce market in a specific category, which customer segments you'll grow through in what order, and which differentiators and marketing strategy will get you there, all need to fit on one slide. A slide that states only the What isn't a pitch deck — it's a company brochure.
05
#The Length Trap: A First-Meeting Deck and an Investment-Committee Deck Are Different Documents
Plenty of founders think they've finished 'the pitch deck' and carry that single version to every meeting. A first-meeting deck and an investment-committee deck differ in length, audience, and even Q&A time.
| Axis | First-Meeting Deck | Investment-Committee Deck |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | 1-2 deal-team partners or associates | Multiple other partners and associates beyond the deal team |
| Length (body) | ~15 slides, excluding appendix | 30+ slides, excluding appendix |
| Time | 20-30 min presentation + 30 min Q&A (60-90 min total) | 30+ min presentation + 30+ min Q&A (~90 min total) |
| Audience's prior knowledge | Nearly none (first pass on business model, team, funding size) | Already briefed in advance via the investment memo |
| Depth | Core business model + team + funding amount and timing, made crystal clear | Down to unit economics, cohort data, 3-year financials, and sensitivity analysis |
| Presenter | CEO alone (occasionally with CTO) | CEO (other partners also want to meet the CEO directly) |
| Appendix | Light, if present at all | An anticipated-Q&A appendix is essential — recurring questions should be folded into the main body |
TIP
Bring a 30-slide investment-committee deck to a first meeting and you'll run out of time before getting through half of it. Bring a 15-slide first-meeting deck to an investment committee and it sends the message 'is this all this company has to show us?' A pitch deck isn't one document — it's two, built for two different stages.
06
#The 5 Most Common Conversion Mistakes
Here are the five most common mistakes founders make when converting a government business plan or company brochure into a pitch deck. They're also the patterns that get a deck cut fastest at a first meeting.
- The cover slide has only a logo with no one-line declarative statement (Company Purpose) — the reader can't tell what the company does in the first five seconds
- The team slide sits in the appendix or at the very end, listing only names and titles — background, experience, and how the founders met are all missing
- The market slide shows just one big TAM number — no SAM/SOM breakdown, and no cited source for the calculation
- There's no competitor slide, or just one competitor — or a matrix claiming superiority on every dimension
- The final page just says 'thank you,' with no funding need, use of funds, or milestones — the ask slide is missing entirely
주의
Mistake #5 — a missing ask slide — is the most telling trace of leftover business-plan tone in a pitch deck. A business plan exists to pass review, so it ends with a timeline and a thank-you; a pitch deck has to end with 'how much, for what, and by when.'
07
#Business Plan to Pitch Deck Conversion Checklist
This is an action guide for restructuring an existing business plan or government application into a pitch deck, slide by slide. Some of these conversions amount to building the slide from scratch, while others let you reuse material you already have.
| Slide | What You Can Reuse from Your Business Plan | What You Need to Build from Scratch |
|---|---|---|
| A. Company Purpose | Your company vision statement | A one-line declarative statement + CEO contact info |
| B. Problem | Part of the 'background' section | 2-3 personas + quantitative metrics (NPS, return rate, etc.) |
| C. Solution | Part of the 'business description' section | A concrete use case + differentiated value |
| D. Why Now | Almost nothing | The timing of a tech, regulatory, or trend shift (net-new) |
| E. Market | The TAM figure from 'market analysis' | A TAM/SAM/SOM breakdown + a bottom-up SOM formula |
| F. Competition | Part of 'competitive landscape' | A direct/indirect competitor matrix + a one-line unfair advantage |
| G. Business Model | Part of 'revenue structure' | Core metrics by category (MAU/MRR/CAC/LTV) + current figures |
| H. Team | Part of 'organizational structure' | How the co-founders met + equity split + key members' background and experience |
| I. Financial | The revenue table from 'financial plan' | 3-year revenue + burn rate + funding ask and use of funds |
| J. Vision | Part of your company vision statement | What you'll look like in 5 years + long-term vision storytelling |
TIP
In practice, slides A, B, G, and H are roughly reusable, while D, E, F, I, and J need to be written almost entirely from scratch. Even with a well-written government business plan in hand, building a pitch deck typically takes another 2-3 weeks on top of it.
Summary.
#Self-Check Checklist
- Does the cover slide have a one-line declarative Company Purpose statement and the CEO's contact info? (the 5-second rule)
- Do you have separate decks for first meetings (15 slides) and investment committees (30+ slides)?
- Is the team slide in the main body (section H), not the appendix, and does it include names, backgrounds, experience, equity, and how the founders met?
- Does the market slide break out TAM, SAM, and SOM separately, with a bottom-up basis for SOM?
- Does the competitor slide include both direct and indirect competitors, with a one-line unfair advantage stated?
- Does the financial slide include a 3-year revenue plan, burn rate, funding ask, and use-of-funds breakdown, all together?
- Does the deck end not with 'thank you' but with the ask (amount needed / use of funds / milestones / vision)?
- Is it saved as a PDF? (never send the raw native file format)
CTA
Upload your business plan to OpenSeed and it points out which claims have no evidence behind them and where investors will push back first. It does not draft a deck structure or fill in a section-by-section checklist for you — you get feedback on what you submitted, nothing invented. It's under the current payment terms shown on the analysis start screen, so you can get a checkup before you start the conversion work.
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